Let's Party

In Matthew 24 Jesus’ disciples asked him when he would come again and what would be the signs of his coming. He told them no one knew the exact time but all would need to be ready when that time would come. Then he told a few stories to illustrate what it meant to be ready.

He described a wedding feast with 10 young women whose job it was to wait for the groom to come and lead him in with oil fed lamps. Five of these brought extra fuel and five brought only what fuel was in their lamps. They didn’t anticipate correctly when the groom would come. The five who had prepared themselves with extra fuel were allowed into the feast the other five were not.

The next story revealed that people have different amounts of ability. Those who are faithful and used their abilities received blessing and reward. Those who were not faithful in their abilities were cursed and sent into “darkness where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth”.

Then Jesus described a scene where he was seated on a throne and all of humanity was gathered before him. He proceeded to separate them into two groups; those who had treated strangers with hospitality, fed the hungry, tended to the sick, and visited criminals in prison and those who… had not. Those who had not would be cast into “the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels”

Like the 5 young women we have to have our lamps well supplied with oil (fuel). That oil is “Treating strangers with hospitality, feeding the hungry, tending to the sick, and visiting criminals in prison.” We manufacture that oil by living sacrificial lives of service to each other according to our ability. We cannot produce that oil for a set period of time and conclude that we have enough oil to enter into the wedding feast. As long as we are on this earth we must be producing oil, according to our ability, to fuel our lamps.

You don’t want to miss out on the “Wedding Party” that God has prepared for us.